Image courtesy of Yahoo Movies
Director:
Rob Reiner
Cast:
Jack Nicholson……….Edward Cole
Morgan Freeman……….Carter Chambers
Sean Hayes……….Thomas
Beverly Todd……….Virginia Chambers
Rob Morrow……….Dr. Hollins
Alfonso Freeman……….Roger Carter
Rowena King……….Angelica
Annton Berry Jr……….Kai
Verda Bridges……….Shandra
Destiny Brownridge……….Maya
Brian Copeland……….Lee
Jennifer Defrancisco……….Emily
The Bucket List is every bit as gimmicky as it sounds. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman hit all the stops on “The Clichéd and Obvious World Tour.” It is important to see all the typical places that movies and literature tell people to see, no need to use one’s imagination and have a truly unique life experience before dying of cancer. No, it is better to be sure to go skydiving, see all the wonders of the world, and make amends with that estranged wife or daughter. Number one on my bucket list: seeing a better collaboration between Rob Reiner and his two leads.
Reiner has tried his hand in a variety of genres, usually to at least moderate success. But lately it appears that he is satisfied directing pandering, humdrum dramedies. Although it is plain to see that Reiner, Nicholson, and Freeman would take the first opportunity to work with each other, it would have been nice if they had waited for some better material. Or better still if they had created it themselves.
As a concept The Bucket List is begging for certain talent to come along and make it their own. While Nicholson offers his usual solid effort, Freeman is still coasting a decade after The Shawshank Redemption. Reiner even has the audacity to parade around a Freeman voiceover as if it were freshly baked bread. One need not point out how stale this particular device truly is.
The Bucket List begins with that old familiar baritone casting its warm rays over Mount Everest, or is that the sun? Same difference, and this walking-dead movie never lets up on the typical conventions of such films. Nicholson discovers he has cancer and is ironically put in the same room as fellow sufferer, Freeman. The joke is that Nicholson is staying in his own hospital, the same privatized hospital he defends early on for its policies, one of which is a shared room. Old codger that he is, Nicholson demands his own room, but is not granted one due to the public relations nightmare that would ensue.
Instead, Nicholson and Freeman become fast friends, and as soon as they are cleared to leave they go on a whimsical, devil-be-damned, globetrotting adventure. It seems that such a traditionally irresponsible handling of one’s own mortality would be an equally nightmarish PR disaster. But here it is comes across as endearing, perhaps Freeman’s mellow tones and Nicholson’s womanizing were used to win over Nicholson’s business associates.
The better bet is that no interested parties would be worried about Nicholson and Freeman waxing philosophical in front of green screens, or planning their next stop during a wide-angle shot of various CG cities and landmarks. After all, who is to object to two terminal septuagenarian’s acting out self-important situations on obvious sets while the second unit crew members are having the time of their lives traveling the world compiling the footage for The Bucket List?
When the second unit’s time comes, each member will be granted the serenity of knowing that they have already accomplished much of what would belong on a typical bucket list. That way, they will have the opportunity to die in peace or make a more relevant, less standardized list for themselves. For the rest of us, we will have to revel in the chance granted us to live vicariously through these two men and their stereotypical re-evaluation of their lives as they stand on death’s doorstep.
